On The Run
by Reivyn
Summary: An X5 deals with life after the escape from Manticore. Add a neurotic older brother, ten wayward siblings and a secret goverment facility looking to put her in a cage, and you have a seriously overstressed X5 on the run.
1. Big brothers and social workers

**A/N: My first fic by myself… Be nice please.**

**A's cousin's /N: And this is Random Rose, her faithful beta.**

**Disclaimer: Dark Angel does not belong to me, if it did it would have a season 3. I do not own any of the characters, except Li. **

**_Chapter 1: Big Brothers And Social Workers_**

"Lost is such a cheap word," Li flashed a sweetly patronizing smile at the social service worker, "I prefer, 'one who does not know where one is at the moment'."

"Come with me," The social service worker spoke in a placating tone, "We'll place you with a nice family with a big home and lots of food, new clothes to wear…"

"I wasn't born yesterday woman. Have you never heard of a thing called the Pulse?" Li gently eased her fingers forward. "Even if you do place me in a nice family, they'll either be abusive or something else."

The social worker knew the scrawny eight year old was right and she was obviously stalling for time. That's when she realized, while she had been busy talking, the kid had been pick-pocketing her.

"Hey!" The social worker gasped in indignation.

"Aw, come on lady. You're already gonna get me a family who's gonna give me food and new clothes, so you might as well just sponsor my next meal." Li's eyes darted around the narrow alley she'd been spending the last three days in and she bit her bottom lip, avoiding the glare of the social worker. "So, much as I'd like to stay and chat, I gotta jet."

As the social worker reached out to grab her, Li dodged tantalizingly out of reach. Sticking her tongue out, Li ran out of the alley and onto the street mingling with the crowd and loosing the social worker.

A hover drone flew by overhead and Li instinctively tugged the baseball cap covering her dark brown hair lower, covering her features.

She rolled her green eyes when a passing group of men wolf whistled at her; suddenly wishing that Manticore hadn't made her so beautiful. She was perfect in every way, with an Asian, Italian background and shoulder length dark brown hair which was just growing out of the Manticore buzz cut hairstyle. Emerald green eyes that made her look like a cat, high cheek bones and a heart shaped face completed the look.

_Ironic, isn't it? Manticore wanted their precious soldiers to blend in for missions and yet, they make them so perfect._ Li thought with a sneer as she ran. _But then Manticore wouldn't have expected their soldiers to escape, figures all that training came back to bite them in the ass._

Li was interrupted from her musings when she came into contact with something solid. Apparently, she had just bumped into a man, a big beefy man with a short temper.

"Hey, watch where you're going kid!" he scowled.

"Sorry." Skirting around him she continued on her way to the harbor, where her contact had her latest supply of Tryptophan. She'd been limiting her intake of pills to a few since her stockpile was slowly diminishing.

Li tugged absent mindedly at the scratchy cloth of her hooded sweatshirt. She longed for a shower right now; even a cold shower would be nice. A change of clothes would be heaven. She hadn't changed for a week; her stomach was growling for food and she just felt downright uncomfortable.

Li's supplier wasn't there when she got there. Pier 16 was a really disgusting place; with rats crawling all over the place, it was mainly for gangbanging since no sane person would come here for any reason, which was the reason why she had chosen this location.

Her supplier arrived; Li had started to get nervous staying in one spot for so long.

"You're late." Li found it necessary to state the obvious. "Does this mean I get a discount for lousy customer service?"

"Where's my money?"

"Jeeze, is that all you think about or are women and booze included in that list?" She handed over his cash; a stack of bills rolled up and held together with a rubber band. Even as her supplier took the money, Li kept her hand out expectantly. "Where's my Trypto?"

"I'm not gonna supply you with it anymore."

"WHAT?" Li scowled. That expression seemed to be constant on her face, most probably because it was one of her best expressions. "Then, where the hell am I going to get it?'

"Not my problem. The Gang is gunning for me and this money you're handing me is going to get me started on my way out of town." He turned to leave. "See ya."

"Damn you!" Li swore at his retreating back. She could already start to feel the slight tremors going up her left arm. Hastily pulling open an almost empty bottle from her pocket, she popped a fistful into her mouth. She staggered forward away from the waterfront and further into the city. _Might as well sit down and get comfortable. _She thought as she leaned against the wall of a building.

The tremors started getting stronger. Her fingernails cut half moons into her palms when she clenched her fist tightly. As Li sat there convulsing, she heard passing pedestrians mutter about her and what America had come to. She silently accepted the snide remarks about her being the girl on a drug trip.

Li bit back a cry when her head slammed into the wall again for the tenth time and counting. Reaching for the pills again she popped another handful into her mouth when her shaking hands spilled the contents of it on the floor and she struggled to pick them up.

Li's reaction was instantaneous when a hand touched her shoulder. She struggled in her attacker's grip despite her increasingly stronger seizures.

She got a shock when a voice sounded from just behind her ear. "Stop Li, it's me, Zack."

Li stopped struggling instantly and twisted around to see him. "Zack? Big brother, you're here! You got out!"

"In the flesh," He grinned at her. "Come on, we can't stay here. Can you walk?"

"Oh, don't mind me; I'll just stagger along after you."

"I see. Still as sarcastic as ever, even with the seizures."

"Not even a seizure could daunt my sarcasm," Li bit out through the convulsing of her body. Then Zack picked her up, annoying and damaging her ego.

"Put me down!"

"I don't think so."

"Well think again." She started to struggle; that coupled along with her seizures was more than Zack could handle.

"Sorry about this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a needle, jabbing it into her arm.

The last thing Li remembered before the drug took effect was Zack's face looking down pityingly at her.

**A/N: PLEASE R&R. **


	2. Doubts about the world

**A/N: Here's chapter 2, sorry for the delay, but my exams are nearing and my teacher is keeping me occupied with homework**. **Special thanks to Random Rose**, **for being my faithful beta. Beta want a keyboard? **

**Eek, forgot to mention this in the last chapter, **_Italics_ **are thoughts, sentences with an** '_Italics and apostrophe_' **are military hand signals. **

**Disclaimer: Dark Angel does not belong to me, yadda, yadda, yadda…**

Chapter 2: Doubts About The World 

The first thing Li noticed when she woke up was the soft, comfortable mattress she was lying on and the warm linen blankets that she was curled up in. Bolting upright instantly, she flipped to her feet. Or at least, she tried to. Li fell, rather ungracefully for an X5; the blankets entwining itself around her legs.

The past events of the last few hours came back to her, and she remembered meeting Zack, her seizure, and Zack jabbing the…_ Zack is going to pay for that. Soon as I get out of these linen shackles…_

Li untwined the blanket while her brain entertained fantasies of the torture she would do to Zack as payback. Li looked up when she finally got loose to see Zack standing in the doorway.

"Zack!" She scowled, "Who or what gave you the idea that I would like you to drug me?"

Zack smirked at her, then shrugged.

"Come closer, I want to dismember you."

"I come bearing food," He offered in a placating tone.

Zack turned around and was out of the female transgenic's line of sight for a few seconds. When he came back into the doorway, he held a carton of what looked like Chinese takeout.

Li suspicions were confirmed when the smell of fried noodles wafted over to her seat on the floor.

"All is forgotten," Li smiled. "Now hand over the food."

Zack obliged. Li began shovelling the food into her mouth at a super fast rate as if afraid that it would disappear any second.

"Whoa, slow down, sis. The food's not going anywhere."

"You try living off nothing but what you can scrounge up for a few weeks."

Zack frowned, obviously deep in thought. "Listen, I have some errands I have to run, why don't you finish up here. There are some clean clothes on the table." He gestured towards the tabletop, "and the bathroom is through that door, as you have probably figured out."

"Bye," Li called out as Zack turned away.

He left and Li resumed eating, her green eyes taking in her surroundings. The room she was in was meagrely furnished, the floor was tiled and the walls painted with what used to be white but was now a yellowy brown colour.

There was a bed ­– the one she fell from – a desk with a mismatched chair in front of it, a bedside table, three windows and two doors leading somewhere. One of them, the one she saw Zack leaving through, she guessed led to the rest of the building, and the other to the aforementioned toilet.

……………………………… **Doubts About The World ……………….…………..**

Fifteen minutes later, Li had showered and dressed in the clean clothes Zack had left for her. They consisted of a tank top, black long sleeve shirt, jeans, some underwear and a pair of combat boots. Where Zack had procured all this she didn't know and she didn't particularly want to.

Feeling considerably more human – as human as she could get being a genetically engineered super soldier –, Li wandered out of the room to explore the rest of what turned out to be an apartment.

Despite the run-down appearance of the building, the apartment was pretty well organized. She supposed Zack, being the Manticore soldier that he was, had kept the habit of keeping his quarters clean even though they'd escaped from Manticore for six months already.

The living room consisted of a beaten up cream coloured couch, a coffee table and a television. Li had seen one of these back at Manticore before. They – the X5s – had been allowed to use it in the rec room, but the only channels that it had was news from all around the world.

This one however, begged to differ, as she undoubtedly found out when she turned it on. A Caucasian girl with long blonde hair and baby blue eyes appeared on the screen along with a boy. His hair was black and dreadlocked and his grey eyes were inspecting his sneakers.

The girl appeared to be crying and the boy handed her a piece of tissue. Li stared at this for a few minutes, before deciding that all this girl was going to be doing was cry and she changed the channel quickly.

What appeared next, she immediately termed as weird. A man appeared; stuffing what looked like a piece of maggot infested cheese from a red plate into his mouth and swallowing it down; a horrible frown marring his features.

Li's mind jumped to the conclusion that the man was being tortured. The screen moved further back and showed a group of people behind him, watching him eat the cheese; a guy in a immaculate suit holding a microphone was saying there were only two more pieces of cheese on the plate.

Li found this mildly interesting and plopped down on the couch to watch. The man finished of the plate and stepped back. The sound of audience clapping filled her ears, but her thoughts remained undisturbed.

The man – who the announcer called William Atkins – was not tied up or anything and no one was forcing him to eat the cheese, so why was he eating it so willingly? A plate full of maggot infested cheese didn't exactly make her mouth water, and if ever presented with it, she would only ever eat it if it were a life and death situation.

Another man, an African American this time moved up next. The plate had apparently been replenished. This man went by the designation Dante McMillan; age 26, as the information bar popped up in the bottom left corner of the screen.

He too cleaned up the plate of cheese. She switched the channel; watching people eat plates of maggot infested cheese to her was frankly, quite mind numbing.

This time, the screen switched to a desert scene. A blue Road Runner dashed by on the screen, followed closely by a brown, scrawny coyote. The screen changed scenes again, showing the coyote trying to capture the bird with a rope, a sling-shot, a rotating circle of spiked balls, a booby-trapped ladder, and a pile of rocks.

The bird just went "Beep Beep" and continued running again, oblivious to the coyote's painstaking plan.

Li grinned watching as the coyote thought up another plan, which the beeping bird, who seemed to have wheels for feet just foiled with ease.

She deduced that this was a type of show was called 'Cartoons', a film made by photographing a series of cartoon drawings to give the illusion of movement when projected in rapid sequence. She'd read about them in some of the books she'd read in the vast Manticore library during rec time.

……………………………… **Doubts About The World ……………….…………..**

When Zack returned an hour later, it was to find a grinning Li paying rapt attention to the television, which showed Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote – he'd seen and read about them before –, running across the screen.

"Enjoying the TV too much to pay attention to your surroundings are we, baby sis?"

"Well hello to you **_too_** Zack."

Zack rolled his eyes to the ceiling in frustration.

"We leave for San Francisco at 2330 hours," Zack spoke to her without turning around. "You'll get a foster family there."

"WHAT?" Li turned to stare at him. "Why can't I stay with you?"

"The less contact we maintain, the safer we are, and we'll have a better chance at not getting captured."

"Zack! I can take care of myself. I stayed out here," Li gestured around her, "Without your help for six months."

"Yeah, and look how well you were doing when I found you."

"I managed to stay out of trouble; I even had contacts supplying me with tryptophan!" Li snapped exasperatedly.

"You forget Li that I am your C.O and you have no business questioning my orders, soldier."

"Yes, sir." Li bit out through gritted teeth. She had seen the Manticore mask of utter perfection slide down during their conversation. It was no use trying to question his orders now.

Li turned and headed towards the room, her expression a cross between a frown and a scowl.

…………………………… **Doubts About The World ……………….……………**

It took twelve hours to get to San Francisco. Zack had left her in front of the social services building with an envelope containing a letter, a thick stack of small bills – enough to last her for about three months, excluding her foster family – and her clothes.

He'd then given her a hug, whispered something to her about lying low and left. Li hadn't been paying attention to him. She was in a daze.

She knew what she had to do; Zack had told her her orders on the way here. She had to go in there, the building that after the pulse somewhat resembled Manticore, with its drab grey walls, hard plastic seats, and the waiting.

Li had never been a patient person. Syl had rubbed off on her, making Li impatient, and thus inheriting that itchy trigger finger. Lydecker and the trainers had reprimanded her more than once for twitching continuously during waiting periods.

_I spent six months looking for my big brother, now he says we have to split up, with the same lame assed excuse. What's the point then, of escaping? At least there we were together. That way, Eva wouldn't have died. Kit wouldn't have been recaptured, or possibly killed. _

_What's the point of living on the run? Always looking over your shoulder in case Lydecker was on your tail, wondering who made it out and who didn't, who you might never see again because they were shot and killed during the escape. _

_I have my doubts about this world, this world outside; but I'm a good soldier, I listened to Zack, because he's my CO and my big brother, my biggest brother. The brother, who, after Syl killed Raven and was punished, did his best to keep us safe. _

_One thing's for certain though, although Zack may know the answers to a lot of things, he won't know the answer to this. Maybe Ben will know? _

_Ben used to know a lot of things, why we were in Manticore, what was outside, why there were nomilies in the basement. I'll have to ask him when I see him. Though the chances of that are slim. _

_The social worker is shaking me, I realised that I have fallen asleep on the hard plastic chairs. Who would have thought I could actually fall asleep on these chairs?_

_My foster family is here to pick me up. There is a black SUV outside. It reminds me of the one Colonel Lydecker used to drive._

_I fall asleep on the drive to the house._

**…………………………… ****Doubts About The World ……………….……………**

Li woke up to find herself in another bed. Groaning, she pulled herself up. "Whose bed am I in now?"

"You're in your new bed, you're safe now, Linette." Her new foster mother, Anne Fuller said. She looked French, with a delicate facial structure, arresting green eyes, brown hair tied carefully into a bun and a petite frame.

She had a soft and gentle voice, so unlike the trainers and Colonel Lydecker, it unnerved her. She reminded Li of her nurse, back in the days when she wasn't part of Zack's unit yet.

Her new alias was Linette Sanchez. Her parents had died in a car crash trying to get out of the city soon after the pulse. Rubbing her eyes groggily, she spoke up. "What time is it?"

"It's 8.00 p.m. now. I've asked the cook to save you some dinner. You must be hungry."

"Yeah." She'd arrived in San Francisco at 11.30. That meant she'd slept for eight and a half hours or so.

She only needed four hours of sleep every week, which meant that she was going to be extremely hyper. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Please, call me mom. You're my daughter now."

Li didn't really know what this 'mom' person was, but if Mrs Fuller wanted her designation to be 'mom', Li would call her that.

Anne pulled back the bed sheets. "Come on downstairs. Rune wants to meet you, and I'll have Paige, our resident cook – and a good one I might add – heat up the food for you."

Pulling herself out of bed, Li followed Anne downstairs. Anne led Li towards the dining room.

There was a hard oak dining table in the middle of the room and eight evenly aligned chairs lined it four sides. A glass bowl holding sweet smelling lavender petals sat in middle of the table. With Li's enhanced sense of smell, she could smell it strongly.

"Paige, can you get the warm up the food in the fridge please?" Anne called towards the kitchen.

A plump Italian woman came out through the kitchen doorway. "I see it is Miss Linette." The woman, Paige, had a heavy Italian accent. "I shall go heat up the food for you."

A girl sat at the table with an open book propped open in front of her. She looked up when they came into the room. "Hi, Linette. It's nice to finally have somebody my age in the house. "

"Hi, Rune." Rune's shoulder length brown hair was tied up in a ponytail and her baby blue eyes were staring thoughtfully at Li.

Rune was about the same age as Li, but Li was still taller than her by about three inches. She wore a spaghetti strap top and a pair of faded jeans.

"I'll leave you two girls to yourselves. I'll be in the library if you need me." Anne said.

"Okay, mom." Getting up, Rune dragged Li on to a seat next to her. "So, what's your story?"

Li knew the answer to that question. "My parents died in an automotive vehicle accident trying to get out of the city of Seattle soon after the pulse happened."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Doesn't matter, I don't remember them that much really" That wasn't even a lie; she didn't really know her mother since Manticore hadn't really been big on family.

"Mom's going to be sending you to the same school I'm going to tomorrow." Rune said. "I'll show you around, and you can meet Lily, she's my best friend in the whole world."

Li was about to reply when Paige came back out again and placed a plate of spaghetti in front of her.

"Enjoy, Miss Linette." She walked back into the kitchen.

…………………………… **Doubts About The World ……………….……………**

Five minutes later and Rune was leading her in an abbreviated tour around the house. They ended back in Li and Rune's room.

Li had never been so full before. She'd had more food today then she got in her daily rations and that was only one meal.

Rune had showed Li where her new clothes were. And she was about to have a shower in the big marble bathroom that connected to their room.

Stepping into the bathroom, she shut the door and pulled off her clothes, kicking them into a laundry pile. She stood under the faucet and stared at the knobs protruding from the wall. One had a 'C' on it; the other had a 'H'.

She had never operated a showering facility before, the ones back at Manticore had been controlled by the command centre and were timed for exactly five minutes. Her superior mental processing went to work figuring out how to operate the shower.

_Knobs are meant to be turned, right? Right. Great now I'm answering my own questions._

Li wondered briefly if the after effects of the drug Zack had jabbed her with were still here, but quickly dismissed it.

'_H' could stand for Hydrogen and 'C' could stand for Chlorine, which is not entirely impossible, but why would a bathroom faucet have Hydrogen and Chlorine? 'H' could also stand for heat and 'C' for cool or cold._

Deciding to do it the old-fashioned trial and error way, Li reached out towards the 'C' knob. She turned it on and immediately a blast of cool water came out. The water temperature was the same as the one back at Manticore, so Li didn't really mind.

Until, the water temperature started to drop.

Li shrieked and turned the water off. Deciding that the 'H' knob stood for hot, she reached towards it, and to prevent a repeat of the previous episode, she turned on the cold water as well.

She reached out tentatively and felt the water; it was warm. She stood under it to get herself wet and began to scrub at her skin with the soap.

Li showered and dressed quickly. Pulling out the makeup she had stolen before she met Zack, she used it to hide her barcode; combed her drying hair and stepped out of the bathroom.

Rune was asleep on one of the twin beds, when she came out. Walking over to the bookshelf in the corner of the room, Li chose a book and settled down on her bed to read the night away.

* * *

BlueAngel137 Thanks for the support.

Mystic Faith Thanks. Does not. It doesn't matter. If you read other Dark Angel stories, you'll find that that is very common. BTW, what's with the changing of your account name every few months?

HoneyX5-452 Thanks and no. The pairing is not going to be Li/Zack.

Calistra Thanks.


	3. Beds Again!

**A/N: Here's chapter 3 folks. Special thanks to HoneyX5-452 and Mystic Faith, because they reviewed both my chapters… Although Mystic Faith's review sounds more like a complaint.**

**Mystic Fayth: Well, excuse me. I'm the beta here, and I like it when a beta-ed version gets put up.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel…Because if I did, do you really think I'd be here writing fan fiction? I do own Li and Anne and Rune and some more characters and if you readers out there wanna know, read the chapter. **

_**Chapter 3: Beds Again!**_

Li was on her way back to the Fuller house from her weekly trips to the payphone to call Zack when she felt the telltale signs of a seizure coming. Her right hand was shaking visibly, and she stuffed it in her jean pocket post haste.

It had been four months since Anne Fuller had adopted her and her husband with his save the world complex and her body had been doing some development.

Her chest and butt stuck out too much, the boys in middle school had stared at her for way longer than she was comfortable with, and more than once she had snapped at them to stop that.

To add to all that, Li's tryptophan supply had been running low again, and she'd been tearing her hair out trying to find a new supplier.

Then, a few nights ago, she'd found a man, early fifties, working in the black market. He was willing to supply her, but only if he got his cash upfront. Li had then been faced with a new dilemma.

Obviously, going to Anne and asking for the money was going to be no help; she didn't know where Zack was, and he didn't seem to be answering her calls. So when faced with this, she decided to put her genetically enhanced skills to use.

She stole, she fenced, she earned. The art gallery she had decided to rob had been easy money, the security detail was hopeless, the locks easy to pick and the air vents, just big enough to fit her small ten year old body.

Li ducked into a near by alley and pulled out the bottle. Chucking half a dozen pills into her mouth, she sat back and tried to relax.

Her body jerked spasmodically, and she dug her nails into her palms, biting back a groan of pain. Li's head slammed into the wall. She saw an explosion of stars in front of her eyes, and then, all went black.

**……………………………………… ****Beds Again! ………………………………… **

Li must have been unconscious, because when she woke, a warm body was curled up next to her. She opened her eyes cautiously and lifted her head. Li immediately wished she hadn't done either and groaned. The bright lights hurt her eyes, and every little movement of her head made her head pound.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she hoped that she would eventually fall back to sleep.

"Li? Hey, Li, wake up." A seemingly familiar voice spoke up. "Time to get up baby sis."

Li groaned again, half opened her eyes and squinted at the stranger beside her.

The stranger apparently was male, judging by his scent. Stormy grey eyes stared back down at her, and his black hair looked like it hadn't seen a comb for months.

"Who are you," Li asked suspiciously, her mind trying to match his face with that from her memories. "And how do you know my name?"

"Don't you remember me?"

Only one of her brothers had grey eyes. "Axle?"

"The one and only." He hugged her. "I didn't know you made it out, baby sister. I'll call Zack, he probably wants to know."

"Don't bother; he already knows I'm here." She grinned at him, "So where is this?"

"My apartment slash workplace." He gestured around the dingy room. "My boss, Mr Korita runs a Chinese restaurant, and I'm his waiter."

"You have a job? I never placed you as one of those job types."

"Yeah, well, you learn to deal." He pulled her up from the couch. "So what are you doing in San Fran? You have a home?"

"Zack sent me here, and yes, I have a foster family. They have this big mansion and there's tons of food, way more than a whole days rations, Axle."

"贪婪的猪."_ Greedy pig. _Axle commented, grey eyes dancing with mirth.

"您也是一个." _You're one too._

Axle grinned. "否认…." _Denial_……

"是您的最佳的特征." _Is your best trait._

"You got that right, baby sis," He flicked her nose. "Denial, is my best trait, and I intend never to change that."

"Shame…." Li was interrupted from her insult, when her cell phone rang. She reached into her jacket pocket, checked the caller ID and flipped it open to answer.

"Hello, mom?"

"Linette! Sweetie, where are you?"

Li winced at the high pitched worried voice of her foster mom. "Relax, mom. I found one of my brothers," Li grinned wryly at Axle. "Or rather he found me. I'm at his apartment."

"Oh, you did? Well good on you. Why don't you invite him back home for dinner? It's almost ready."

"Kay. See ya." Li flipped it close again, gave a sigh and silenced Axle before he could start talking. She knew he had heard their conversation. "So, you coming or not?"

"Why not?" He smiled cheekily, "Wouldn't want to miss out on a chance at free food would I?"

**……………………………………… ****Beds Again! ………………………………… **

"So, tell me, Alex, what school do you go to?" Anne was currently bombarding Axle with questions after dinner; much to Li's annoyance.

And when she'd protested, Axle had had the cheek to smirk and reprimand her in a mock stern voice. Li had huffed, refused to have anything to do with the conversation and been called by Rune to go with her to her room.

But Li had stayed, so that she could hear all the lies that Axle was telling in case Anne decided to question her.

Li pretended to be engrossed in a book called 'Gone With The Wind', something she had found lying around.

She flipped through the pages disinterestedly, had absolutely no interest in knowing seeing as how the first few hundred pages mentioned some barbecue, and after only a hundred pages, it got there.

She was lying stretched out on the couch, her legs, draping over the arm rest. She was staring at the book. And then, she felt a tremor go up her arm.

"I have to go." Li said standing up suddenly.

"Go where dear?" Anne.

"Got to go...to bed!" Li stammered, desperately hoping that Anne would fall for it. "Got to go to bed, I'm crashed."

"Alright, goodnight sweetie."

Li stumbled a little as she was walking up the stairs. Luckily for her, Anne had gone back to talking to Axle.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Li heard Axle say. "I wish to see Linette before I leave."

"Sure."

Axle followed her. He'd helped her along to her room, where he shut the door.

Li smiled softly, "Y-you know Anne h-h-has this r-rule abou-about me n-not be-being allowed to clo-close the do-d-door with a b-boy in th-the room."

"Are you suggesting I would commit incest with you?" He touched his heart and looked mock hurt. "Actually, I wouldn't mind, just that big brother Zack would not approve. Spoilsport."

"Ass."

"Fine specimen isn't it?"

"N-not when I-I'm d-d-done with it." Li paused and scrunched up her face, "Okay, th-that ju-just sounded wr-wro-wrong."

He grinned, "You have one dirty mind, baby sis."

She tossed a pillow at his head despite her seizing and pulled out her pills. Axle walked around her bed and surveyed the room.

"You wouldn't mind if I fenced that statue of the Egyptian goddess Bast would ya?" He asked Li, pointing to a statue on a small table at the side or the window. "I could probably fence it for a few grand."

"I-I'm gonna." Li choked out before dry swallowing a handful of pills. "Th-that's wh-why you-your not… to-touching it."

"Fine. Be obnoxious." He sat on her bed and pouted. "Come on, its not like your foster parents would notice."

Li didn't reply but just squeezed his hand. "Night, bi..big bro."

"Yeah. I'll see you in the morning." Getting up, Axle left, closing the door softly behind him.

* * *

A/N: R&R plz. 


	4. The road to a new home

**A/N: Well, here's the long awaited fourth chapter of 'On The Run' (At least I hope it was long awaited). This is dedicated to purple shimmer for giving me such a short but nice review saying that she loved this story…and also Mystic Fayth for being my beta and complaining so much. (Well excuuuuuuuse me.)**

_**Chapter 4: The Road To A New Home **_

Two months later: 

Shimmying down the drainpipe, Li dropped gracefully down onto the ground. The messenger bag she carried contained clothes. Tucked into the waist band of her black jeans were two 9mm handguns and a knife in her combat boots.

Lydecker's men were on her trail and she'd already called Zack's emergency line to inform him. Right now she was heading towards Axle's apartment.

She dashed around the block, dodged past a few drunken men who had been thrown out of a bar, through the narrow alley and thought exasperatedly, _two more blocks to go_.

A minute later, when she reached Axle's apartment, she climbed up the fire escape of the next building. Zooming in with her enhanced sight, she spotted Axle, zoned out on the couch, the television blaring away.

Taking a running jump, she leapt across the gap, lowered herself carefully from the edge and burst through Axle's top floor apartment window. She tucked into a roll and landed before pulling herself up. The instant she did though, a hand clamped itself around her neck, choking her.

Li kicked out with her legs, desperately trying to draw air into her lungs, but the iron grip on her throat wasn't letting her. Her face was turning purple, when Axle finally got a good look at her face; he let go instantly.

Li dropped onto her knees, gasping for breath.

"Are you alright?" Axle said kneeling by her, "I thought you were an intruder."

"Do I look alright to you?" Li managed to choke out.

"I'm sorry," He said, "But why did you have to break the window? My boss is going to freak."

"Deck's on our trail, we got to go." She stood up. "I've already contacted Zack, he's on his way."

"Right, hold on a sec," He ran into his room.

He came back a moment later holding a backpack and his jacket. Like her, he had a Glock tucked into his waistband.

"We'll have to take the stairwell since I just swung through your window without a rope."

"Right." He grabbed her hand, pulled her out the door and up the stairs. "Where did Zack say he would, meet us?"

"At a secluded park not too far away from here," She answered, taking a running jump and leaping over the gaps in between the buildings followed closely by Axle. "He should be here in approximately 17 minutes."

"17 minutes doesn't sound like an approximate number to me." Axle remarked dubiously. "But by all means, lead the way."

* * *

When they got to the park, Zack was already there circling around the park in a black SUV, waiting for them.

"Not too far away my ass," Axle complained to Li, "Anyplace that takes more than one minute to get too is considered far."

"Jeeze! Crack a push up or two sometimes, or Zack will start bugging you about that podgy belly of yours."

"I do not have a podgy belly," They climbed into the car. "I'm in excellent shape right now." Axle said indignantly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Li waved to Zack. "Hey big brother."

"Hey Bro." Axle said to Zack who just grunted in reply….as usual.

"We'll stop at a motel in Santa Maria." Zack glanced backwards at them. "I'll have to split you up, the less contact you maintain, the safer we all are."

"But…"

"No buts, Li." The look he sent her through the rear view mirror stopped her midway through a sentence.

Li pouted, stared out the window and didn't speak for the rest of the journey except to reply in monosyllables when Axle asked a question.

"Here," Zack held out a hand phone to Axle while keeping one hand on the steering wheel. "You know the contact number."

Axle reached out for it, took it and stuffed it into his pocket. He reached forward again, turned on the radio and leaned in his seat. He sighed; this was going to be one long drive.

* * *

It was midnight by the time the trio reached Santa Maria, the motel owner hadn't asked any questions once Zack threw down a bunch of hundred dollar bills.

They bunked down at the motel until 0600 hours in the morning, where Zack unceremoniously pulled the blankets off the both of them and forced them to get up. Where on it was another day of driving. They stopped at Shiprock, New Mexico on the second night at another 'dingy, musty, disgusting, unkempt, cheap, motel' as Axle so kindly put it.

On the third day, Zack dropped Li off in front of the social services centre in Santa Fe with two thick wads of cash; one for Li and one for the social services centre.

She hugged Axle then Zack drove off.

* * *

Jennifer Parks, that was her new alias, it said so on her identification card, along with the names Sylvia Parks and Gerard Parks below the words 'Parents/Guardian'.

Her new home was well furnished, but nowhere near as comfy as the Fuller house.

Li stayed in the attic which had been converted into a room upon her arrival. This arrangement suited her just fine, since it allowed moderate freedom to her during the night hours when she couldn't sleep.

The family pet, a black and white cat by the name of Socks had taken an instant liking to Li, he'd purred and purred, rubbing his body against Li's legs and leaving black cat hairs on Li's jeans.

The longer Li stayed with them, the worse the way they treated her, and once, when a brownout had happened during a football game, Gerard had come after her and Sylvia. He'd kicked her in the stomach, and threw her against the coffee table.

Li hadn't understood it. Lydecker had never resorted to physical violence whenever the lights went off – which back at Manticore had only happened when it was lights out and time to bunk down –. Li hadn't done anything to stop it, Gerard was her superior and Li had learned early on back in Manticore that you never retaliated unless ordered to by a higher ranking officer. Retaliating had only ever brought her more trouble.

She made up white lies to her teachers in school, never telling them what really happened to her – Gerard had told her not to – back at her foster home. During the day, Li spent most of her time away from the house, hanging out with her classmates, at the park or just walking around Santa Fe.

Her classmates never questioned her about some of the worse injuries she obtained from the beatings; the less serious were usually healed by morning anyway.

Lucy, her classmate also came to school sporting bruises sometimes, and Li figured it was another one of these ordinary's habits. It had never occurred to her that she could stop these beatings by just going back to social services.

Li wouldn't have gone anyway, Zack had wanted her to find a foster family; she'd found one and she wasn't about to disobey her CO's orders, she was a good soldier.

This was what it was like to live a normal life, this was what it was like to have a home. That is, until she met Ryan…

* * *

**A/N: R&R guys. Tell me what you think and maybe I'll start posting chapters faster since I'm mostly free for the rest of the year.**


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